American Impressionism: A New Vision

Exhibit 2014 in Giverny France

Giverny Museum of Impressionisms

From March 28th through June 29th, 2014

Mary Cassatt, L’Été, 1894
Huile sur toile, 100,6 × 81,3 cm
Chicago, Terra Foundation for American Art,
Collection Daniel J. Terra, 1988.25
© Terra Foundation for American Art

The exhibit organised at the Musee des Impressionnismes Giverny
offers a unique display of  80 paintings
signed by American  impressionists such as
Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent,  James Mc Neill Whistler,
who spent a long time in France,
belonged to the impressionist group
and participated in the creation
of this new aesthetic.

William Merritt Chase, Près de la plage, Shinnecock, 1895
Huile sur toile, 76,2 × 122,2 cm
Toledo, Ohio, Toledo Museum of Art, don d’Arthur J. Secor, 1924.58
© Toledo Museum of Art / Photo : Photography Incorporated, Toledo

Other American artists like Chase, Hassam and Tarbell,
inspired by the new way of rendering light effects
took the impressionist technics back home
to feature seascapes or countryside in bright colors.

Edmund C. Tarbell, Trois sœurs – Étude de la lumière de juin, 1890
Huile sur toile, 89,2 × 101,9 cm
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Milwaukee Art Museum, don de Mme Montgomery Sears, M1925.1
© Milwaukee Art Museum / Photo : John R. Glembin

Beside landscapes painted in the open air,
American impressionism also focuses on modern topics
such as leisure and pleasure of well-off people:
picnics, walks, etc,
giving the illusion of an ideal world.

Childe Hassam, Union Square au printemps, 1896
Huile sur toile, 54,6 × 53,3 cm
Northampton, Massachusetts, Smith College Museum of Art,
acquisition du Fonds Winthrop Hillyer, 1905:3.1
© Smith College Museum of Art

Men at work,
new means of transportation
or the growing industrialization of cities
play also a part
in their vision of the New World.